Vietnam Photos

Oliver Stone.

Posted on Sun, June 30

In 1976 I optioned “Platoon” to a producer, but it was not made. The production manager asked me to entrust him with many of my prints and negatives from Vietnam. He thoughtlessly sent it all in a package from New York to Los Angeles, but it never arrived. I’m sure they’re somewhere in this world—anyone know (reward offered)?

So recently when we were setting up our website, I went hunting thru storage for various materials that are now on the site—or will be. In the back of a home closet was an old shoebox marked ‘classic snaps, 1950s.’ There were many family pictures, but at the very bottom were 7 envelopes of worn-looking negatives in 35mm and the vanished 126 format. They looked vaguely like Vietnam. It is an amazing moment when something lost reappears after more than 40 years.

I developed 100+ of these pictures at a shop in Los Angeles that could actually handle the 126 format. Not everything came out by any means, but there were certainly some colorful, well-preserved images of the war—of which I enclose a few shots for those who might be interested, or who’ve seen “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” or “Heaven & Earth.”

I enclose some descriptions:

With some of the ‘brothers.’ These guys were fun to be with back in base camp in the rear, and made some of the dreariest hours pass with laughter, grass, and music—mostly a lot of soul from The Temptations, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson, Spyder Turner, the Chamber Brothers, etc.

These were taken in the last part of my tour in late ’68 with the 1st Cavalry in the Quảng Trị area—as well as some shots from the central province where our divisional headquarters was located at An Khe.

You’ll see some of ‘Sin City’ and some of the girls who worked in the bars—just surviving this war. And that beautiful police dog who was killed, as so many were.